Friday, February 1, 2013

This is TJ, writing for YPOIW's Abandoned Theater feature, and I love Oscar season. I like competitive awards (I'm a sports fan) even though I recognize that competition in art is stupid. Is there really a best? There is on one side--I'll fight someone to prove my #1 movie of the year is better than my #70, at least--but then on the other side, isn't everything a bit subjective? Ahh, who cares. I'm going just to have some fun with this. For the next 3 weeks, I'm going to post sections of my Top 20 films (and honorable mentions)!I liked a
lot of movies this year’s Oscar season. Overall, I’d say it was a really strong
year. I saw a little less than 70 of 2012’s offerings and there were more than
20 films on my “loved list” – including some whipping boys, which you’ll see
here. I don’t want to exclude the plethora of awesome movies, so here are some
highlights did not make my Top 20 films, aka the Best of What Didn’t Make It.

Most Surprisingly Good Film: The Grey

I thought this movie was going to suck. I even wanted it to suck. The premise seemed supremely stupid to me. But oh what I wrong. Liam Neeson has his best role in ages as a man trying to survive in a Jack London-esque tale of survival. The Grey also features some of the best, most dense philosophy of any popular film in 2012: we should not rely on God to save us. Rather, we should take our fates into our own hands, tape broken glass on our knuckles, and punch a wolf in the face.

Crazy Film Concept That Worked: Turin Horse

This movie features two hours of a man eating boiled potatoes with his bare hands. Also there is a bit about the decay of the world, but that is secondary to the potatoes, seriously. And it’s engaging. And apocalyptic. There is no way to prepare someone for Turin Horse, except to say it is well worth the watch for the ambitious of you. And the Bela Tarr fans.

Best Looking Movie: Prometheus

Prometheus deserves kudos for its production
design and special effects. The greys and blues were beautiful. Many fault the
film’s script, side-character acting, and even Ridley Scott’s direction, but
few people fault how this movie looks. Prometheus
is landmark in sci-fi production design and special effects. Also, it is a rare
example great usage of 3D.

Best Film Directed By a Great Director, and
Features Great Moments, but Doesn’t Add Up To a Great Film: Tie, Cosmopolis and Killing Them Softly.

David
Cronenberg (Eastern Promises, A History
of Violence, Cosmopolis) and Andrew Dominik (The Assassination Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly)
are talented auteurs, but their 2012 output does not feature their best work. Cosmopolis has a genius final 10-minute
scene that encompasses an ultimate conversation of egos between Robert
Pattinson and Paul Giamatti, while Killing
Them Softly also has a great final scene that is an argument between Brad
Pitt and Richard Jenkins. But these movies hit the viewer over the head with
their (mostly anti-)capitalism messages and drag a bit. Some claim The Master is this year’s overrated
auteur work, but where I believe that movie soars, these movies don’t quite
make it.

Best Career Resurgence: Matthew McConaughey in Killer Joe and Magic Mike

Steven
Soderbergh and William Friedkin showed up in 2012 and left two really good
movies (three for you Haywire fans—pretty
decent to me, though a lot lesser than Magic
Mike) and two really good Matthew McConaughey performances. He owns these
charming yet creepy roles that hit different sides of the film world. Where Magic Mike is a flashy expose on the
male stripper world, Killer Joe is a
dark white-trash melodrama featuring a supremely creepy hitman, played of
course by McConaughey.

What’s
funny: McConaughey also gave a great, funny performance in a movie that did make my Top

20.

Best Bromance: Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Zavalta
(Michael Pena) in End of Watch

Kudos to
Pena and Gyllenhaal. Both actors did fantastic work. And kudos also to David
Ayer’s script. You care about these two
silly cops, about as much as they care for one another. Plutonic, brotherly
love is something that goes deep in life, but in films, these relationships
make me sick to my stomach—not because I’m heartless but because they feel very
corporate and phony, on the part of an over-sentimental filmmaker and a
money-grubbing studio. This relationship here in End of Watch is natural and realistic, and when the end of the
movie hits the audience, no one leaves not feeling something, bro.

Best Nearly-Nameless Side Character: Agent Coulson
(Clark Gregg) in The Avengers

Best Documentary (for crying): Tie, How to Survive a Plague,The Invisible War, and Shut up and Play the Hits

Best Documentary At Making Me Dance Like a
Crazy Person: Tie, Girl Walk // All Day
and Shut Up and Play the Hits

Best Documentary: Searching For Sugar Man

This
documentary inspires the audience into curiosity. Who is Rodriguez, and what
kind of life did he live? How was he so
little known in his own country (here in the good ole US of A) but exploded in
South Africa? What was his music and
Dylan-esque poetry about? And how did he die—self-immolation or on-stage bullet
in the temple?

The truth
is revealed half-way through the doc, and everything shifts, somehow uppting the ante and fulfilling all the promises made early in the film. Searching for Sugar Man is fantastic and emotionally engaging
throughout both of its halves.

Best Animated Feature: ParaNorman

I have
not yet seen Wreck It Ralph (all credibility
out the window, I know) but it would be hard-pressed to be as pleasing and
heart-felt as ParaNorman. Its story
was fresher than Brave’s and more
complicated than Frankenweenie’s. ParaNorman was through-and-through a success.
Also, ParaNorman and Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie both continue the usage of
stop-motion animation, which I’m a big fan of. When I eventually see Wreck It Ralph, I will reassess.

Like The Artist and The King’s Speech, 2012 had its years of critical darling, crowd
pleasing motion pictures that are favorites to win a few Oscars, including possibly
Best Picture. These movies are well made by their directors, Ben Affleck and
David O. Russell, but they’re hardly their best works. Gone Baby Gone and The
Fighter are much better examples of awesome filmmaking and would have been better
Best Picture contenders, the latter of which was such a contender at the 2011
ceremony. While I enjoy Alan Arkin cursing and Bradley Cooper actually
appearing in an engaging role for once, I wouldn’t say any aspects of these
movies were overly impressive. They were just—good.

6 comments:

1. Great post, I was surprised how many 2012 movies I've missed, especially documentaries about which I'm normally obsessive. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't even say Sugar Man yet, but the Invisible War was indeed moving stuff. Anyway, a good movie post makes you excited about movies and after reading, there are a few listed here that I was reminded about and hopefully I'll see in the next few days.

2.I totally agree about Argo and Silver Linings. I thought they were Very Good, but there are too many legitimate GREAT movies, many made in 2012, for the attention and adoration these have received.

3. Your love of Ang Lee is deep, huh? I thought Life of Pi was excellent. Lee wouldn't get my nod for director this year, but hell of a movie.

4. Les Miz, duh! HOW DARE you. Someone other than Her Majesty Anne Hathaway as Best Supporting? Heartless, soulless, vampire you! You must have not liked Twilight bc it misrepresents your bloodless brethren. Kidding, obviously, you have solid opinions and I'm a les miz fanboy since circa 1993, so I have trouble being objective. But HOW DARE YOU anyway.

I enjoy the novel and have ADORED the musical - attended 8 performances in the last 15ish years, including Colm Wilkinson reprising his original Valjean in Toronto as my first. I had a spiel prepared for anyone who saw the movie and asked me why the hell I liked the play so much, because I assumed the movie wouldn't live up. It's still not quite as good as the theatrical production, but I thought it was excellent.

It's just opinion. :-) tbh I thought Tom Hooper's insistence on super tight shots was really annoying, and the performances stunk of melodrama. It wasn't showy in a theatrical way to me, it was showy in a "make sure I have enough tears so I can get my Oscar" kind of way. And I'm pretty sure that ain't what Victor Hugo was writing about.

I understand what you're saying. You make a good case for your opinion, but none of that bothered me.

Melodrama has become a dirty word of late, but I feel that it has its place. Just because subtle and understated can be an awesome approach, doesn't mean to me that with the right material playing something to the hilt can't be. IMO Les Mis isn't a story to pull back on. Even reading the lyrics to the songs are just dripping with overstated emotion - and I love it in this case.

Its been about ten years since I've read the book. I remember enjoying it, but thinking it was much different than the musical in tone. I loved the musical, and I never minded when it was dripping with emotion - even if it slapped you in the face with it.

And I'm not just apologizing for the film, I was all set to hate it. Being a fan, I was going to see it regardless, but I loved it.

Anyway, bright minds can disagree, and I'm always glad to talk with someone who is a fan of the source material. Nice chatting with ya!